As published in 2009 October press release by Linda Jameson:
Cellular Bioengineering Inc. (CBI), a Hawaii-based technology accelerator, announced today that it was honored as one of three National Finalists for the Christopher Columbus Foundation Homeland Security Award for 2009. The presentation was made at a National Awards ceremony in the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. This award is the result of a year long national competition to identify the individual citizen or company that is making “a measurable and constructive contribution related to basic and/or advanced research in the area of homeland security which will result in a significant and positive benefit to society.”
The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation is an independent Federal government agency established to "encourage and support research, study and labor designed to produce new discoveries in all fields of endeavor for the benefit of mankind." Governed by a Presidential appointed Board of Trustees, the Foundation seeks to nurture and recognize pioneering individuals and programs which reflect the visionary spirit and pioneering heritage of Christopher Columbus.
CBI was chosen to be a finalist for this prestigious award based on its invention and commercialization of DeconGel™, a product of its CBI Polymers Division. DeconGel™ is a polymeric hydrogel which is the state-of-the-art technology for the effective containment and decontamination of radiological waste and potential nuclear threats as well as chemical and other toxic wastes. Nuclear power plants and government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Defense are early customers and users of DeconGel™. Additional applications of DeconGel™ are being expanded for the decontamination of industrial and military grade hazardous chemicals and biological agents.
Kimberly Owens, the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Christopher Columbus Foundation, congratulated CBI for its development of DeconGel™. “This hydrogel is a powerful tool in the remediation of radioactive waste and nuclear threats, and future uses are sure to be discovered,” she said. Owens went on to assert that the Board had a very difficult decision to make in choosing between the three National Finalists.
DeconGel™ was funded by the Hawaii Technology Development Venture (HTDV) / Office of Naval Research (ONR). Additional R&D funding was secured through the USAF Force Protection Battlelab, the National Defense Center of Excellence for Research in Ocean Sciences (CEROS) under its contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Department of Energy.
CBI is a venture accelerator focused on disruptive biomedical and biodefense innovations. Founded in 2003 in Honolulu, Hawaii, CBI works with world-class research institutions to transform novel ideas into commercial products, especially in the area of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) detection and remediation.
“We are extremely honored to be named as a National Finalist for this prestigious award,” said Larry Stack, Chief Operating Officer of CBI Polymers. “Our goal as a company is to accelerate the commercialization of innovative technologies that will have a significant impact upon the security and well being of our nation. This award exemplifies CBI’s motto: Invent. Disrupt. Inspire.”
In 2005, CBI was named a winner of the R&D 100 Award and was nominated for The 2009 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor for technological achievement bestowed by the President of the United States on America's leading innovators.
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Hawaii Company Develops, Markets High-Tech Cleaner
As published in 2008 August, Pacific Business News by Nanea Kalani.
With an eye for what he calls “disruptive technologies,” Honolulu entrepreneur Hank Wuh has entered the commercial market for cleaning nuclear and hazardous waste.
His company, Cellular Bioengineering Inc., has created a cleaning gel that made its way from research and development to the commercial market in approximately two years.
“CBI continues to search the world for significant disruptive ideas which it can nurture and grow into mature products that will change the way the world operates,” said Wuh, who founded his company in Moiliili in 2003.
Governor Lingle Names Innovation Award Winners
As published in 2009 April in Governor Linda Lingle's Press Release: HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle today named three recipients of the Governor’s Innovation Awards for their commitment to creative thinking and new ideas which result in better products, services and processes, while also improving Hawai‘i’s future.
“Through ‘disruptive ideas,’ as one of our award winners refers to innovation, this latest group of innovators is helping us all realize the importance of looking beyond what’s always been done, and striving for how we can do things better,” said Governor Lingle. “As these award winners demonstrate, innovation can be something as simple as using native plants to landscape our roadways, to more leading-edge development of new technologies that can restore people’s sight or generate valuable products from marine algae.”
The recipients of the Governor’s Innovation Award for February 2009 are as follows:
Innovation by an Individual: Hank Wuh
In 2003, Hank Wuh founded Cellular Bioengineering Inc. (CBI), a Hawai‘i-based developer of technologies with biomedical and biodefense applications. CBI searches for what Wuh calls “disruptive ideas” and “disruptive technologies” that will eventually overturn the status quo and change the future. Wuh’s company has the worldwide license for the development of a “bio-integrating polymer corneal” substitute called the EYEGENIX™ Artificial Cornea which aims to return the gift of sight to millions of people. Other products are a paint-and-peel gel that can enhance biohazard cleanup and a nanochip that can track pills to thwart counterfeited drugs. With a company motto of “Invent. Disrupt. Inspire.” Wuh and his team at CBI are ensuring that Hawai‘i remains at the forefront of innovative thinking.
Act 221 Success Stories: Cellular Bioengineering
As published in 2009 April 8, Midweek.
Recently, Hank Wuh's company, Cellular Bioengineering Inc., launched its latest product--a gel capable of cleaning up everything fro ma radioactive nuclear spill to ground-in dirt. Paint it on: peel it off the next day. Pretty much as simple as that.
And the worldwide market? Oh, about $200 million.
Already another of the company's phenomenal products--an artificial cornea--is in human clinical trials. It has the potential to return sight to 10 million people around the world whose blindness is caused by corneal disease.
Cellular Bioengineering has grown quickly and supported local hires. Wuh's own Hawaii roots and his schooling--partly at the University of Hawaii, along with Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University and Stanford University--make it important to him to offer opportunities to young people from the Islands.
Intellectual property--in other words, new inventions--is the core of Wuh's company, and in many ways the core of Hawaii's ability to develop an economic sector around high technology.
That core has been supported by Act 221, which has been key to jump-starting research and intellectual property development in the Islands.
With 25 patents in his portfolio, Wuh is already impacting global markets, not just the Hawaii market. The inventions and products his company controls have the potential for upward growth nearly everywhere in the world with the possibility of billions of dollars of business. And all of it is the result of good ideas given good support.
To read full article, click on picture:
HVCA Technology Entrepreneur Awardees Named
As published in 2008 November, Honolulu Star Bulletin by Erika Engle:
The Hawaii Venture Capital Association has named its first Technology Entrepreneurs of the Year, in a pau-hana event last night at the Plaza Club.
Winners were named in four categories: Lorenz Sell, president of Blue Lava Technologies Inc. as Young Entrepreneur; Bob King, president of Pacific Biodiesel Inc. as Clean Tech Entrepreneur; Jason Lau, managing member of TalkStory Productions LLC as Digital Media Entrepreneur, and Hank Wuh, chief executive officer of Cellular Bioengineering Inc., as Invention Entrepreneur........Hank Wuh founded Cellular Bioengineering in 2003 to develop disruptive technologies with biomedical and biodefense applications. The company works to shepherd ideas into mature products for the health care and homeland security industries.
CBI Announces the Commercial Launch of DeconGel™
As published in 2008 October Press Release by Linda Jameson:
Honolulu, Hawaii – (October 29th, 2008) CBI Polymers, a division of Cellular Bioengineering Inc. (CBI), announced today the launch of its DeconGel™ 1101 product. DeconGel™ is the most effective radiological decontamination solution available to industries worldwide ranging from nuclear power utilities, decommissioning and decontamination sites, hospital facilities, and research laboratories. The worldwide market is estimated to be $200 million per year.
DeconGel™ effectively decontaminates a broad range of surfaces and contaminants. Its extraordinary binding properties allow it to trap and encapsulate a wide spectrum of radioisotopes on different substrates in a simple, no-preparation process allowing easy and safe disposal without the use of water or cleaning agents.
DeconGel™ has been in beta testing for the past year, and has secured more than 30 customers around the world. Current customers include Ontario Power Generation, Washington Savannah River Company, Sandia National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Colorado State University, and Tripler Army Medical Center.
DeconGel™’s advantages and innovations include:
- Immediate fixation of the contamination
- Safe and user friendly
- Cost effective (significantly reduces staff hours spent performing the decontamination procedure)
- Easy application, removal, and disposal
- Environmental friendly, no waste water and a minimal amount of solid waste generated
“DeconGel™ is an amazing contribution to our industry. We especially like how easy and efficient DeconGel™ is to use,” stated Dan Young, First Line Manager at Ontario Power Generation, “We used the gel to decontaminate a concrete room that was difficult to clean with our current method. The application was very simple. We applied the gel and peeled the next day. It came up from the floor very easily with minimal waste generated and reduced the loose contamination from 5000 cpm (counts per minute) to 0 cpm.”
“Using DeconGel™ resulted in substantial cost savings for our department,” said Tom Johnson, PhD., Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Radiological Health at Colorado State University, “We utilized DeconGel™ to effectively decontaminate volatized tritiated thymadine from one of our chemical hoods. This resulted in CSU being able to begin using the hood facility after four years of not being able to use it.”
“The transformation of novel ideas to commercial products is the hallmark of CBI, and we believe DeconGel™ will play a critical role in the management of radiological and nuclear contamination on a global scale,” says Roberto Mandanas, General Manager of DeconGel™. “We plan to enter into strategic alliance with major industry partners in key world markets in the coming months.”
DeconGel™ was initially funded by the Hawaii Technology Development Venture (HTDV) under its contract with the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Additional R&D funding was secured through the USAF Force Protection Battlelab, HTDV, and the National Defense Center of Excellence for Research in Ocean Sciences (CEROS) under its contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
For information regarding DeconGel™, go to www.decongel.com, or contact Roberto Mandanas at rmandanas@cellularbioengineering.com.
About CBI
CBI invents, develops, and acquires disruptive technologies to transform novel ideas and innovations to commercial products. The Company has an Intellectual Property portfolio of over 25 patents and patent applications, and four operating divisions including:
- DeconGel™ is a commercialized product with superior efficacy for the containment and decontamination of radioactive and nuclear spills, and with additional applications in industrial cleaning and environmental management.
- Eyegenix™ is a bio-integrating artificial cornea. It is in pilot human clinical trials, and holds the promise of returning sight to 10 million people worldwide who are blind from corneal disease.
- PixiTag™ is a nanoporous silica microtag which can be used to authenticate valuable assets, from great works of art and luxury goods to pills and capsules to be ingested, protecting consumers from loss and the health risks of counterfeit products.
- E Canary is a bio-sensor comprised of living cardiac cells on a CCD chip which can detect both known and unknown harmful threats in the environment such as chemical contaminants and biologic weapons.
Please go to www.cellularbioengineering.com for further information.
Media Contact:
Linda Jameson
(808) 221-3552
ljameson821@gmail.com
Genie in Bottle: Cellular Bioengineering, Inc.
As published in 2008 Fall, Upload - The Quarterly Journal for Science & Technology in Hawaii.
The wellspring of innovation can be a strange and quirky place. Moili'ili-based Cellular Bioengineering is a master at mining the well, finding "Aha!" moments even in an "Oops!" The company got off the ground in 2003 with its bioengineered corneal tissue. That project is well on its way to helping the world's 10 million people with corneal blindness.
In the meantime, the folks at CBI noticed certain properties in the corneal hydrogel - they transmogrified it and created a new material that cleans radioactive uranium in wounds. Then they created another version that sops up radioactive and nuclear contamination at nuclear power plants and research labs. Existing standard procedure for spills is often soap and water, Windex or duct tape - so folks at CBI think they're onto a good thing. This gel contains and cleans up toxic contaminants, while sterilizing down to the microscopic level.
Then, one morning, researchers came into the lab to find a bottle of the gel had tipped over (Oops!) spilling its contents on the floor. Cleaning up, the noticed the floor was super clean (Aha!). So, they worked some more and created yet more versions.
As it turns out, the nonsmelly, user-friendly, wipe-on, peel-off hydrogel can deal with the leavings of everyone from terrorists to toddlers. It has been shown to be effective against the drug-resistant "superbug" MRSA, which can be a life-threatening problem in hospitals, as well as against chemical and biological agents that could be used in a terrorist attack.
The commercial version of the gel, which has the internal code name of GenieGel, works on stained boat hulls, algae red dirt, mold; it even cleaned a bathroom at McKinley High School that had be trammeled by decades of dirt.
Division general manager Roberto Mandanas sees a market for the hydrogel family in homes, hospitals, industries - and a bottle of it next to every fire extinguisher in every public building across the country.
The patents have been filed and the hydrogel is already available in the rad-nuc market, where the market potential is about $5 billion a year just for the Department of energy's decontamination and decommissioning projects. CBI is also talking with distributors and nearing commercialization for other markets.
It's probably not surprising that the team is spinning again, this time with a spray that creates a barrier against would-be permanent stains. Taggers, be warned.
Biotech Firm Sees Cornea Surgery Success
As published in 2008 August, Pacific Business News by Nanea Kalani:
Five years after setting out to manufacture the delicate tissue that enables the human eye to see clearly, Cellular Bioengineering Inc. has completed 10 successful cornea implants abroad.
The Honolulu biotechnology firm’s patented material for artificial corneas is being manufactured locally and last December was used for eye surgeries in Europe.
Cellular Bioengineering founder and CEO Hank Wuh said the pilot tests help validate the material’s effectiveness, with all patients — who ranged in age from 16 to 75 — regaining sight....read more.
Cellular Bioengineering Snags the Nation's Top R&D Honors
As published in 2005 October, Hawaii Business Magazine by Jacy L. Youn:
And the winner is ... : The R&D 100 award proves CBI's staff is at the top of its game. From left to right: Shaosheng Dong, Michael Coy, Amy Weintraub, Leslie Isaki, Romie Lattrell, Tony Lee, Hank Wuh, Ge Ming Lui, Rosalynn Chan, Kevin Chinn.
The R&D 100 awards. Dubbed "The Oscars of Invention," they are the nation's top honors in research and development, presented annually by R&D Magazine to the companies and organizations behind the best, brightest innovations in America. With former award-winning inventions ranging from the fax machine to the artificial kidney, making the list is no small feat. A fact that isn't lost for a second on Hank Wuh, founder and chief executive officer of Honolulu-based Cellular Bioengineering Inc. (CBI), which this year has been selected an R&D 100 Award recipient, for its development of the Neural Matrix Chip. "It's an honor. It truly is an honor," says Wuh. "They only pick 100 companies each year, and we're very proud to be one of them." ...read more.
Cellular Bioengineering Wins Major R&D Award
As published in 2005 September Pacific Business News by Clynton Namuo:
Cellular Bioengineering Inc. has received one of R&D magazine's R&D 100 Awards, recognizing the world's best innovations in technology in the past year.
The company won the award for its neural matrix chip that allows for the growth of nerve cells in specific patterns on a microchip.
Founder and CEO Hank Wuh is hoping the R&D award will propel his Honolulu-based company into the big leagues of technology companies and generate worldwide attention from corporate and institutional clients....read more.
A Biotech Firm with its Eyes on the Prize
As published in 2005 February, Hawaii Business Magazine by Jacy L. Youn:
Hank Wuh may have successfully avoided the limelight for the past year and a half, ever since he formed the Moiliili-based biotech firm, Cellular Bioengineering Inc. (CBI) in mid-2003. But if things continue to progress as nicely as they have for Wuh and CBI, they may soon be as ubiquitous as David Watumull and Hawaii Biotech are in the world of, well, Hawaii biotech.
Despite CBI's decidedly low-tech location (its lab facilities are located off of Young Street near McCully), the company's 12 employees are working on some very high-tech life science products. Its primary focus is regenerative medicine, or the bioengineering of replacement parts for aging and diseased tissues and organs. CBI's most advanced technology, which involves the growth of cornea (the outermost layer of an eyeball) cells, has potentially a multi-billion dollar market. "Corneal transplants are the most frequently performed human transplant procedure," says Wuh. "But there are still about 10 million people worldwide who are blind from corneal-associated diseases because there aren't enough donors. Our ultimate goal is to eliminate the need for donors entirely." ...read more
A Potential Billion Dollar Company
As published in 2005 February, Pacific Business News, by Terrence Sing:
A new Hawaii company hopes to make the blind see.
Cellular Bioengineering Inc., a biotech startup focused on regenerative medicine, has applied for patents on its proprietary bioengineering of replacement parts for aging, diseased or damaged tissues and organs.
The work the company is doing at its nondescript laboratory in Moiliili has the potential to revolutionize the way organs are replaced and create a life-sciences powerhouse in Honolulu.
In many ways, Cellular Bioengineer-ing is a nearly perfect model for those promoting Hawaii's economic diversification. The company could develop its technology anywhere, but chose Hawaii not only because of its proximity to Asian markets but also because half of its employees are kamaaina who received advanced degrees and came home from the Mainland.
"This is a potential billion-dollar annual revenue company," ....read more.
Greater Good Radio Interview
Radio Interview in 2005 December on Greater Good Radio:
Dr. Hank Wuh has a plan to help millions of blind people to see. Cellular Bioengineering, Inc (CBI) has developed technology to produce corneas to be used in eye transplants. This has been talked about as a multi billion dollar venture with serious social benefit. Dr. Wuh left a promising surgery practice to become a full time inventor and entrepreneur.
Dr. Wuh invented medical devices as a resident at the Stanford University Hospital. He now is an inventor, CEO and investor in the life science field. Hear Dr. Wuh’s unique view of business and how a global mission is the new paradigm.
Some questions asked:
Welcome Hank, can you tell us about the Cellular Bioengineering Inc and what they do?
Does Cellular Bioengineering Inc have a stated business strategy or a “mission statement”?
What’s the story behind Cellular Bioengineering?
What is your role in the company?
Where do you do your science?
Did you ever practice medicine?
How did you become interested in this kind of study?
Congratulations on the award from R&D magazine. The R&D 100 Awards, recognizes the world’s best innovations in technology in the past year. How has the award helped you and your company to further your studies?
How are you able to fund your studies?
What are some of the interesting projects you are working on now?
How do you manage your time?
What do you do to support the community?
What was your experience with venture capitalists?
What do entrepreneurs need to do to raise venture capital?
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